Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Obituary: Mullah, Dadullah and Obaidullah

Last updated: July 25, 2007

May 18, 2007

Taliban's chief of staff, Mullah Dadullah is dead. Within 24 hours after he crossed the border into Afghanistan from Pakistan, US forces have tracked him down. The one-legged corpse of Dadullah (Dadullah has lost one leg in the war with the Soviets. NB) was identified among a group of Taliban militants killed by NATO forces in the province of Helmand a few days ago.

Dadullah was one of the top three deputies to the reclusive Taliban's leader, the one-eyed Mullah Omar (Muslim fundamentalists have a weakness for asymmetrically crippled leaders. Or at least a leader should be blind or paralyzed like Sheikh Yassin. NB)

Two other deputies, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani and Mullah Obaidullah, are currently out of office for various reasons. Osmani was killed last December by a US air strike and Obaidullah was captured by the Pakistani authorities.

Obituary: Mullah Dadullah

Mullah Dadullah was well known for his passion for slaughtering Shia civilians. His another famous hobby was film making. Dadullah had recorded numerous clips of beheadings carried out by him and his followers. Unlike Abu Mussab Zarkawi, Dadullah saw little need to cover his face while sawing off other people's heads.

A few months ago Dadullah took over the headlines in Western media after he boasted of having got 6,000 volunteers for suicide missions against the Nato and government's targets in Afghanistan. The dreaded spring offensive failed to materialize as shortly after this there has happened a massive fallout between the Taliban and Al Kaida forces in Pakistan's tribal areas, in which hundreds of Uzbeks, Bin Laden' loyalists, were killed by Waziri tribesmen, supporters of the Taliban.

Despite the atrocious shortage of eyes and legs experienced now by the Taliban's leadership, it's sure as hell that the war in Afghanistan will continue. And even if the leaders of the Taliban never learn to grow back eyes and legs, they will still retain their capacity for mounting fierce spring offensives, if not this year, then the next one.

PS

Mullah Osmani's obituary will follow when I have more time, that of Obaidullah - when he is dead.

June 6, 2007

Dead and Deadly

. . .

Meanwhile, a purported Taliban spokesman said the militant group had killed one of five kidnapped Afghan health workers because the government had not handed over the body of slain Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah by a Tuesday morning deadline.

A Public Health Ministry spokesman on Monday said President Hamid Karzai had ordered the body of Dadullah, who was killed during an operation in southern Afghanistan last month, to be traded for the five workers.

The claim by the purported Taliban spokesman, Shuhabuddin Athul, could not be verified. Athul said the Taliban would kill the other workers if Dadullah's body was not handed over.

Taliban fighters kidnapped a doctor, three nurses and a driver in Kandahar province in March. It was not clear which of the five was killed.

The demand that Dadullah's body be given to the Taliban came from the former commander's brother, Dadullah Mansoor, who now heads the militant operations in the country's south. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid has said that Dadullah was buried at a secret location near Kandahar.

QUETTA, Pakistan - A Taliban veteran of Guantanamo Bay who became one of Pakistan's most-wanted rebel leaders killed himself with a hand grenade Tuesday after he was cornered by security forces, officials said.

The death of Abdullah Mehsud, a stout, round-faced man in his early 30s who lost a leg years ago fighting for the Taliban, was a boost for Pakistani authorities under pressure from the U.S. to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaida militants fighting on both sides of the Afghan border.